City Councillors mandated to step down were the elected representatives of the second Municipal Election of 1949, including the two prominent PP women politicians Phyllis Eu and Amy Laycock who were both running for a new term. PP had expelled a Councillor, S. S. Manyam (North), not long after the ME last year. He was sending his wife to run as an independent candidate in the West ward. LP, in turmoil, also expelled one Councillor, M. P. D. Nair (South), earlier in the year and another whose term was up, S. M. A. H. Chisty, resigned from LP and was going independent. In addition, the head of a LP rebel faction, S. Jaganathan, was contesting as an independent against LP leader P. M. Williams. PP fielded largely old hands and there were more multi-corner contests, resulting in narrower margins.

Nomination day: 5 November 1952 [Wed]
Polling day: 6 December 1952 [Sat]

Registered voters: 44,896
Total voter turnout: 22,905 (51.0%)

Election deposit: $250